We have major infrastructure needs in many sectors in the United States. The potential impact of a failing public health infrastructure should alarm us and drive action. We can't predict when the next outbreak, epidemic, or disaster will occur, but we can guarantee that it will take place. The question is whether we will work to fortify the public health infrastructure now or deal with the consequences later.

After years of funding cuts and neglect, the critical components of our public health infrastructure responsible for tracking, monitoring, and ultimately preventing or curing Ebola -- the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Disease Control -- have been forced to respond to this potential crisis with severely constrained resources.

As infectious disease doctors, we routinely care for patients with meningitis, but never have we treated a case of aspergillus meningitis, the type of fungal infection that has caused more than a dozen deaths and sickened nearly 200 people in Tennessee and other states.